I've had my FH for a week now and he still does'nt seem to wanna eat. I've tried everything short of live fish and he just does'nt even seem to even want to eat. Is this normal? I've had fish in the past that took awhile to eat but never this long. I've tried pellets, cichlid sticks, freeze dried krill, shrimp, and tubiflex worms. He looks at them then just swims away. Anyone out there got any suggestions??
FH not eating
- Thread starter wjones1970
- Start date
jay17;2065244; said:
He's about 11" and looks to be ok. Just worried because he looks a little sunken in the stomach. I've never had a big cichlid really refuse to eat. I think it may be possible the original owner feed live fish. I know the LFS had feeders in with him.
That's not a good thing. A skinny Flowerhorn is usually a sick Flowerhorn. Try the feeders and see if he bites. Appealing to his feeding response is the way to go right now. Feed him whatever he will eat until you can get him chubby enough to ween him over to a better diet.wjones1970;2065302; said:
For the sake of being thorough, what's his setup (ie tank size, tankmates, water params, etc)? Got any pics?
starve him untill he eats. Feeders carry disease sometimes and are not a good habit to get into IMO. Once he has feeders, it will be even harder to get him on pellet. He'll eventually get hungry and eat.
Vittle King is absolutely right according to me, he can go a few days without food, but i would avoid feeders cause of parasites (unless u quarantine them for a week or 2 and watch them for any illness/parasites, or u breed ur own feeders).. but once he gets those tasty feeders, he may not like pellets....
try some shrimp if u havnt.....
i hope he starts eating soon
try some shrimp if u havnt.....
i hope he starts eating soon
Yeah, starve a fish who already has a sunken belly. Good idea.VittleKing;2066097; said:
He needs to get the fish back into shape, then worry about getting him on pellets. Quarantining the feeders is always a good thing to do.
first thing.. check his paramaters. Second thing, figure out what he was eating before you had him. Usually you're fine starving a fish until it will eat what you have but I wouldn't recommend it on a fish that already has a sunken in belly. I would NOT try feeders unless thats what he was raised on. If your fish is sick and it eats a diseased feeder its going to circle the drain a lot faster.